Jef Van Meirhaeghe

Jef Van Meirhaeghe (born 23 January 1992) is a Belgian former professional road cyclist,[1] who competed professionally for Topsport Vlaanderen–Baloise.

Jef Van Meirhaeghe
Van Meirhaeghe at the 2015 Nokere Koerse.
Personal information
Full nameJef Van Meirhaeghe
Born (1992-01-23) January 23, 1992
Ghent
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Amateur teams
2010Cube–Fintro
2011Soenens–Construkt Glas
2012–2014Lotto–Belisol U23
Professional team
2015–2016Topsport Vlaanderen–Baloise

Career

Amateur career
Van Meirhaeghe at the 2014 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad U23.

As a junior, Van Meirhaeghe won the 2010 Junior Tour of Flanders.[2] After a year riding for the Soenens–Construkt Glas team, he rode for the Lotto-Belisol Under-23 team from 2012 to 2014. In February 2014, he finished on the podium of the under-23 edition of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, having been in a breakaway with the eventual race winner, Dimitri Claeys. In May 2014, he finished in the top ten of the Paris–Arras Tour, his best stage-race result to that point.[3] During this time he rode principally as a domestique for other riders, rarely having a chance to race for himself.[4]

In August 2014, Van Meirhaeghe became the under-23 Belgian national road race champion, winning the race in a solo breakaway despite a gear-shift problem.[5] Shortly after this victory, it was announced that Van Meirhaeghe was among six neo-professionals to sign for the Topsport Vlaanderen–Baloise Professional Continental cycling team for the 2015 season.

Professional career

His first race for the team came at the 2015 Tour of Qatar.[6] He subsequently raced in the 2015 Tour of Oman. He joined the breakaway on the first stage in an attempt to gain the young rider's jersey but failed. He then entered the breakaway on every subsequent stage of the race and was awarded the combativity jersey at the end of the race.[4] On the final stage of the race, Van Meirhaeghe was part of the breakaway group that stayed away to the end of the race. He was tired following his efforts earlier in the race and did not even need to enter the breakaway in order to win the combativity classification, but he was ultimately able to stay with the leading riders. In the final part of the stage, he was beaten by his companions Matthias Brändle and Iljo Keisse; he took third place on the stage, which was the biggest result of his career to that point.[4]

Major results
2011
7th Grand Prix Impanis-Van Petegem
2012
6th Memorial Van Coningsloo
2013
4th Overall Carpathian Couriers Race
2014
1st Road race, National Under-23 Road Championships
3rd Omloop Het Nieuwsblad U23
8th Overall Paris–Arras Tour
8th Antwerpse Havenpijl
2015
1st Combativity classification Tour of Oman
2nd Grand Prix Criquielion
gollark: I mean, the sun manages it, you're extracting energy from potential energy in the nuclei or something.
gollark: There's no thermodynamic reason you couldn't do it, as far as I know.
gollark: Oh. Hmm. That does sound bad.
gollark: Stupid people exist in *all* countries.
gollark: Sounds interesting. Although that's probably on the internet now.

References
  1. "Ik ging achteruit in plaats van vooruit" [I went backwards instead of forwards]. Gazet van Antwerpen (in Dutch). Concentra. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  2. "Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres 2010 - Classic". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  3. "Jef Van Meirhaeghe". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  4. O'Shea, Sadhbh (23 February 2015). "Van Meirhaeghe completes full set Tour of Oman breakaways". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  5. "Jef Van Meirhaeghe sacré champion de Belgique Espoirs". lavenir.net (in French). 24 August 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  6. "Jef Van Meirhaeghe". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
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